It Doesn't Take Many Spammers to Kill a Newsgroup

Chalo

Wow, this place is getting thick with Chinese spammer jackasses.

I've tried using GGKiller to tidy it up, but that script inevitably
and inadvertently eradicates postings from folks I want to read, and
has no straightforward "undo" function.

Google Groups seems helpless or (more likely) unwilling to stem the
onslaught of off-topic and abusive spam. I've stopped reporting it.

I don't use the same machine consistently enough to warrant using a
traditional newsreader, even if those things weren't so late-20th-
century in their user interfaces.

I wonder if these brazen spammer scum have sold even one pair of
shitty shoes, or even one counterfeit watch, in the process of
destroying what used to be a reasonably humane online environment. I
sure hope not. At best, this is the online version of copper
scavengers who cut up a new $10,000 plumbing installation just to sell
the scrap for $100.

What I do hope is that the Chinese government uncovers some excuse to
exterminate the bastards and harvest their organs for reuse in more
deserving human beings.

Chalo

Yannik

"Chalo" <chalo.colina@gmail.com> schreef in bericht
news:23fc5b30-4f1c-41b9-9954-a8923058073d@a23g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
> Wow, this place is getting thick with Chinese spammer jackasses.
>
> I've tried using GGKiller to tidy it up, but that script inevitably
> and inadvertently eradicates postings from folks I want to read, and
> has no straightforward "undo" function.
>
> Google Groups seems helpless or (more likely) unwilling to stem the
> onslaught of off-topic and abusive spam. I've stopped reporting it.
>
> I don't use the same machine consistently enough to warrant using a
> traditional newsreader, even if those things weren't so late-20th-
> century in their user interfaces.
>
> I wonder if these brazen spammer scum have sold even one pair of
> shitty shoes, or even one counterfeit watch, in the process of
> destroying what used to be a reasonably humane online environment. I
> sure hope not. At best, this is the online version of copper
> scavengers who cut up a new $10,000 plumbing installation just to sell
> the scrap for $100.
>
> What I do hope is that the Chinese government uncovers some excuse to
> exterminate the bastards and harvest their organs for reuse in more
> deserving human beings.
>
> Chalo

fortunately they use obvius e-mail addresses so in a newsreader; control,
some left mouseclicks and the delete button and it becomes readable.
I did not found good spam killer for my newsreader yet.
If someone knows a good solution, I'm listening ;-)

Yannik

Kristian M Zoerhoff

On 2008-04-21, Chalo <chalo.colina@gmail.com> wrote:
> Wow, this place is getting thick with Chinese spammer jackasses.
>
> I've tried using GGKiller to tidy it up, but that script inevitably
> and inadvertently eradicates postings from folks I want to read, and
> has no straightforward "undo" function.

There's no whitelist function?

> I don't use the same machine consistently enough to warrant using a
> traditional newsreader, even if those things weren't so late-20th-
> century in their user interfaces.

I solved that problem with a Freeshell account. That lets me turn the
full power of slrn loose on r.b.m, in the form of my GG "soft" filter:
Anything from GG that isn't in my whitelist gets a score of -1000,
which marks it read and flags it in dark green, but doesn't fully
suppress it from the article display. That way, I can still read posts
from folks who aren't in the whitelist (and add them, if I'd like), but
GG posts are skipped by default if I page through via the 'n' key for
next unread article.

It's the best compromise I've been able to come up with so far.

--

Kristian Zoerhoff
kristian.zoerhoff@gmail.com

frkrygow@gmail.com

On Apr 21, 2:28 am, Chalo <chalo.col...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Wow, this place is getting thick with Chinese spammer jackasses.
>
> I've tried using GGKiller to tidy it up, but that script inevitably
> and inadvertently eradicates postings from folks I want to read, and
> has no straightforward "undo" function.
>
> Google Groups seems helpless or (more likely) unwilling to stem the
> onslaught of off-topic and abusive spam. I've stopped reporting it.

I agree that Google must be unwilling to attack this problem, and
that's puzzling to me.

Google's income is from advertising. Here we have spam ads that kill
a discussion group. The spam brings in no money for Google, and it
prevents the public from seeing the ads Google does get paid for.

They must have technology that can deal with this. Gmail seems very
adept at keeping spam down.

What am I missing here?

- Frank Krygowski

Kristian M Zoerhoff

On 2008-04-21, frkrygow@gmail.com <frkrygow@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> They must have technology that can deal with this. Gmail seems very
> adept at keeping spam down.
>
> What am I missing here?

Political will, I guess. Google must still consider GG a "side project",
so it's low on the totem pole, and it shows. It's frustrating, because
Google does, as you point out, do such a good job of flagging spam in
Gmail.

--

Kristian Zoerhoff
kristian.zoerhoff@gmail.com

OughtFour

We can be as deft with filters as we like, but newbies see a wall of spam.

Bill Sornson

Chalo wrote:
> Wow, this place is getting thick with Chinese spammer jackasses.

True 'dat. I've found it doesn't take long to highlight each one and then
"Mark as Read" -- they usually come in bunches at the same time, so they're
all displayed together (for most part).

PITA, but hasn't ruined things...yet.

BS

Andrew Price

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:28:26 -0700 (PDT), Chalo
<chalo.colina@gmail.com> wrote:

[---]

>Google Groups seems helpless or (more likely) unwilling to stem the
>onslaught of off-topic and abusive spam. I've stopped reporting it.

Agreed, they don't care. That finally made me take the plunge and
filter out *all* posts coming from GG, with the exception of posters
on a white list, such as yourself.

>I don't use the same machine consistently enough to warrant using a
>traditional newsreader, even if those things weren't so late-20th-
>century in their user interfaces.

If you used something self-contained like X-News, you could just move
it from one machine to the other. OK, it doesn't have the advantages
of an off-line newsreader, because it's "on-line only", but then, so
is GG, so you'd have nothing to lose as far as functionality is
concerned, and everything to gain from its filtering capabilities.

Tom Sherman

Chalo Colina wrote:
> Wow, this place is getting thick with Chinese spammer jackasses.
>
Wow, they are almost as bad as 'bent riders.

> I've tried using GGKiller to tidy it up, but that script inevitably
> and inadvertently eradicates postings from folks I want to read, and
> has no straightforward "undo" function.
>
> Google Groups seems helpless or (more likely) unwilling to stem the
> onslaught of off-topic and abusive spam. I've stopped reporting it.
>
> I don't use the same machine consistently enough to warrant using a
> traditional newsreader, even if those things weren't so late-20th-
> century in their user interfaces.
>
My newsfeed must be doing a good job of filtering, since I am seeing
about 5 to 10 spam posts per day.

> I wonder if these brazen spammer scum have sold even one pair of
> shitty shoes, or even one counterfeit watch, in the process of
> destroying what used to be a reasonably humane online environment. I
> sure hope not. At best, this is the online version of copper
> scavengers who cut up a new $10,000 plumbing installation just to sell
> the scrap for $100.
>
> What I do hope is that the Chinese government uncovers some excuse to
> exterminate the bastards and harvest their organs for reuse in more
> deserving human beings.
>
The real problem is that it does not cost the spammers anything to post
their messages.

--
Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia
The weather is here, wish you were beautiful